Floating supports advantageously present a hull with longitudinal sides that are substantially vertical in order to optimize oil storage capacity, and also to give better behavior in rough seas. However a hull with vertical sides is particularly disadvantageous in terms of its behavior when faced with pack ice. Thus, proposals are made in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,102,288 and 4,571,125 for floating supports that present, amongst other means, sides with profiles that are curved or inclined in order to facilitate ice-breaking, in the manner of profiles that are known for the bow of the ship with a stem that is inclined relative to the horizontal.
Patent application WO-2007/089152 describes an oil field development ship anchored on a turret, with vertical sides similar to those commonly used in the North Sea or in the Gulf of Mexico, and possessing pack ice destruction means constituted by cutter devices based on using high-power rotary tools that move on guide means installed along the sides of the ship, so as to eliminate progressively the pack ice that is close to said ship. Such devices are extremely expensive to make and difficult to implement since they need to be operated at high levels of power and over the full thickness of the pack ice, and thus at the end of an arm that needs to be extremely rigid, and furthermore underwater for much of the time, since said pack ice presents a thickness that may be as much as several meters in certain locations.
The problem of the present invention is to provide an improved solution, in particular a solution that is simpler and less expensive to implement and to provide, and above that is more effective in destroying pack ice, the solution being suitable for large-capacity oil production floating supports and in particular those that have vertical sides, the solution preventing the pack ice from blocking and damaging a ship that is anchored on a turret, such as FPSO, when the ship moves in compliance with wind and current.